Appeal to help find family of 1920s fireguard maker

ADVERTISER readers are being asked to help reunite an unusual piece of furniture with links to Rotherham with the family of the man who made it.

The fire screen, believed to have been made and decorated in the 1920s, has turned up at an antique centre in Stoke on Trent, and the heritage experts are keen to reunite it with the family of its original owners.

An inscription on the screen, signed by “Victor E. Baby” in 1981, says its tapestry was worked by his aunt “Mrs Geo. Stephen Hunt, at Wickersley House near Rotherham in 1928 during my stay there of three years.”

Mr Baby, who made the wooden frame and stand himself, added: “It was given to me on her death in 1950 by her husband and has been in my possession until I gave it to my son Keith Stuart in 1981.”

A spokesman for the Furniture Mine centre in Stoke, which is run by the charity Emmaus Potteries, said he was keen to hear from anyone in the Stuart family who might be keen to have the fire screen again.

You can find Furniture Mine on Facebook or call on 01782 846111.

 

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